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Donlevy, Hoffman earn honors from RSS

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Derek Donlevy and Nicholas Gregg Hoffman are the most recent winners of the Leadership Team Member of the Month award from Recreational Sports and Services at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Donlevy won the honor for August and Hoffman for September.

Donlevy, of Oconto, Wis., is a two-year employee of RSS. He’s a graduate assistant with sport clubs and intramurals and is pursuing his master’s degree in recreation administration. The son of Brian and Kim Donlevy, Derek earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation management from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. After completing his master’s of education in recreation administration at SIUC, his career goal is to become the director of a campus recreation center or of a city park or recreation department.

“Derek has done everything asked of him and more. He led trainings and sessions and helped organize them. He assisted in every team-building activity we did for other departments. He helped others get acclimated to new positions. There’s more I could say about Derek but his actions speak loudly enough,” said Shane Bennett, assistant director for intramural sports and sport clubs for RSS.

Hoffman, of Rockford, began working for RSS about six months ago and is an assessment and evaluation graduate assistant. He’s working on his doctoral degree in psychology and holds a bachelor’s in computer science and psychology. The son of Gregg and Patricia Hoffman, Nick plans a career as a professor after completing his doctorate in applied psychology.

“Nick Hoffman is a multi-talented graduate assistant for our department. He is our evaluation and assessment guru who assists in survey development and handles all of our data analysis. Additionally, Nick has a strong technology background and throughout September he was instrumental in assisting our information technology department with installation of more than 15 new machines and a server while also troubleshooting and resolving some of the day-to-day IT issues. The best part is that he does all of these things with a great attitude,” said Sally Wright, assistant director of the Student Recreation Center.

Supervisors also praise Hoffman for his ability to work independently and resolve problems and for his efforts in the development of several evaluation tools.

Recreational Sports and Services presents the Leadership Team award monthly to a member of the team, which includes full-time staff, graduate assistants and student employees. Full-time staff members choose the winner from among team nominations and the award recognizes extraordinary leadership and teamwork skills.